Products February 6, 2009

New Columbia-based ETF Comes to Market

Global index provider FTSE Group (FTSE) has licensed GlobalX Management Company to create a new exchange traded fund based on the FTSE Colombia 20 Index.
Reported by
According to the firm, the ETF will be the first in the United States to track the index, which represents the performance of the top 20 stocks, ranked by liquidity, then size, in one of the world’s fastest growing emerging markets.
The index meets FTSE’s stringent liquidity standards and employs a unique capping methodology to ensure regulatory compliance in the listing of financial products on US exchanges. Equities within the index are also free-float weighted to ensure that only the investable opportunity set is included, according to the announcement.
FTSE notes that, amidst global market turmoil over the course of the trailing year, ending 30 January 2009, Colombia was one of the top performing emerging markets. The FTSE Colombia 20 Index was down only 5.38% in USD total return terms over that period, as compared with the FTSE Emerging All Cap Index, which fell by 50.92%.
The FTSE Colombia 20 is heavily weighted in Oil & Gas, Banks, and Financial Services as classified by ICB supersector. The top two companies in the index are Ecopetrol SA, the largest Latin America IPO in 2007, and Bancolombia SA, the largest commercial bank in the country.
Compliance February 6, 2009

That Tax Statement May Not Be In the Mail – Yet

You may have noticed that those year-end tax statements aren’t showing up as soon this year – but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says they should be more accurate.
Reported by
According to IRS notice IR-2009-11, a new law, enacted last fall, changed the deadline for when brokers, including brokerage firms, mutual fund companies and barter exchanges, must furnish year-end Forms 1099-B to their customers from January 31 to February 15. Where a broker furnishes these forms by mail, this means that the forms must be mailed, not received by that date.
Because February 15 falls on Sunday this year – and because Monday, February 16 is a federal holiday, the 2009 deadline is February 17. In addition, the IRS has said that for calendar-year 2008 reporting, the February 17 deadline also applies to other tax information that brokers report to their customers, including such items as interest and dividends, on a combined year-end statement (see Notice 2009-11, Brokers May Furnish Certain Composite Annual Tax Reporting Statements by February 17, 2009)
.
The IRS notes that this change is designed “…to make it easier for brokers to provide investors with accurate year-end statements on stock sales and other transactions’. The IRS said that Inaccurate year-end statements that have to be corrected later “…often force investors to file amended individual returns.’
Amended Returns
In its 2006 annual report, the Information Returns Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC) recommended changing this deadline from January 31 to February 15, noting that “Form 1099 reporting has become very complex over recent years. As a result, many broker dealers are currently experiencing 20% amended Forms 1099. There is insufficient time to make the necessary changes in January, verify the data, print the forms and mail them by Jan. 31.’ IRPAC is a federal advisory committee that advises the IRS on issues related to information returns, such as Forms 1099.
The long-standing January 31 deadline for providing other year-end forms remains unchanged. However, because January 31 falls on Saturday, employers, banks and other businesses had until Monday, February 2 to mail or otherwise make available various 2008 year-end tax statements. This includes forms in the W-2, 1098 and 1099 series.

«